Senator Says He Meant No Insult by Remark

By DAVID STOUT

Published: August 16, 2006

If Senator George Allen of Virginia is thinking of running for president in 2008, as is widely believed, what he said in a little town in southwestern Virginia several nights ago may haunt him.

''This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is, he's with my opponent,'' Mr. Allen said on Friday night at a rally in Breaks, next to the Kentucky border. ''He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great.''

Mr. Allen, a Republican running for re-election, was singling out S. R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old volunteer for Mr. Allen's Democratic challenger, James Webb. Mr. Sidarth's mission was to trail Mr. Allen and videotape his speeches, in the hope they would yield grist for Mr. Webb's campaign.

But it was Mr. Allen who supplied grist for his rival with his use of the term ''macaca,'' a genus that includes numerous species of monkeys found in Asia.

Mr. Allen said Monday that he had meant no insult, that he was sorry if he hurt anyone's feelings and that he did not know what ''macaca'' meant, according to The Washington Post, which reported the incident on Tuesday.

Mr. Sidarth, who is of Indian descent, was not convinced.

''I think he was doing it because he could, and I was the only person of color there, and it was useful for him in inciting his audience,'' Mr. Sidarth told The Post.

The senator's communications director, John Reid, said in an interview Tuesday that Allen campaign workers had good-naturedly nicknamed Mr. Sidarth ''Mohawk'' because he would not disclose his name and the sobriquet seemed appropriate for Mr. Sidarth's hairstyle.

Perhaps, Mr. Reid suggested, ''Mohawk'' morphed into ''macaca,'' with results that turned out to be regrettable.

After his initial use of the term, Mr. Allen went on to urge the crowd to ''give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.''

Mr. Reid said those words were not an effort to stamp a ''foreigner'' label on Mr. Sidarth, who was born in Fairfax County, Va. People who follow the campaign of Mr. Allen, who was born in California, know that he often talks about ''the real America, real people in the real world,'' meaning people outside the Washington Beltway, Mr. Reid said.

Jessica Smith, press secretary for the Webb campaign, said that Mr. Sidarth had been introduced to Mr. Allen in the past and that the senator's staff knew who he was.

Several Virginia polls show Mr. Webb, a Vietnam War hero, novelist and former Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, trailing Mr. Allen. Yet Ms. Todd said there was no discouragement in the Webb camp.

''We have a fantastic candidate,'' she said, adding that he was one who offered leadership instead of a rubber stamp for President Bush.

Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Tuesday that Mr. Allen was strong enough in Virginia that the verbal gaffe would probably not keep him from being elected to a second term.

But should Mr. Allen run for president, the word ''macaca'' will hurt him, Mr. Sabato said, ''not only because it is offensive on its face but also because it fits into a long pattern of insensitivity by Allen on racial and ethnic matters.''

In 1984, as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Mr. Allen opposed a state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After being elected governor in 1993, he issued a proclamation honoring Confederate History Month. He also kept a Confederate battle flag in his home, according to The Almanac of American Politics.

The almanac also notes that as a senator Mr. Allen sponsored legislation to award $1.25 billion in grants for computers and technology for historically black colleges and universities -- the measure died in the House -- and that he proposed that the Senate apologize for its failure to enact antilynching laws in the 1930's and 40's.

''I have worked very hard in the Senate to reach out to all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or gender,'' Mr. Allen said on Tuesday.

Photos: Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, said he did not know the meaning of the word ''macaca,'' which he called S. R. Sidarth, left, at a campaign rally on Friday. ''I was the only person of color there,'' Mr. Sidarth said. (Photo by Senator George Allen campaign, via Associated Press); (Photo by Suzanne Carr-Rossi/The Free Lance-Star, via Associated Press)